Wednesday, January 23, 2008

I am a math loser

I have wanted to go back to school for ages. I really knew that I needed to brush up on my math skills. I have always considered myself a victim of new math. I have issues with all parts of math, and don't remember a lick of it from high school. So the other day I was in Staples I saw this software called Math Advantage 2008.

I have only done two lessons of the very basic lesson on the cd. I have learned a lot though.

I love doing factor trees! Why? Because I learned these cool tricks that I had never learned before.

The tricks of divisibility... If divisible by 2 ,the last digit of the number will end in 0,2,4,6 or 8 If divisible by 3 ,you add the digits together and see if the sum will be divisible by 3. If divisible by 4, the last two digits need to be divisible by 4. If divisible by 5 , the last digit needs to end in 0 or 5. If divisible by 6 , the number needs to be divisible by both 2 and 3. If divisible by 9, you add the digits together and find out if the sum is divisible by 9. If divisible by 10, the number needs to end in 0.

Too bad there isn't a trick for 7 or 8 that I've learned but what I know certainly makes for a lot faster problem solving.

So, I'm going to work through this cd, and hopefully I'll be refreshed with my high school level math skills and perhaps get myself ramped up for some college classes! The next thing I'd like to tackle is grammar!